


Far From The Desert Sun's Drum Beat

by regionals



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Homophobic Language, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Period-Typical Homophobia, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21741763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regionals/pseuds/regionals
Summary: Lonnie moves upstate and with him gone, Will feels like he can breathe.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 120





	Far From The Desert Sun's Drum Beat

**Author's Note:**

> me: yeah idk i dont rly care about byler  
> me: proceeds to randomly galaxy brain

Will feels like he can't breathe the first time his dad calls him a faggot. It's one thing to hear it from some of the jerks at school, and another to hear it from his own father. The first time his dad calls him a faggot is the first time Jonathan throws a punch, and the first time his dad calls him a faggot is the first time his mother doesn't let the asshole talk his way out of it.

Joyce tells him, later, during one of those conversations she probably shouldn't be having with a fifth grader, "Will, honey, I love you, and I know I put up with so much of his — of his _horse shit_ , but as long as I can help it, I'm _not_ letting him treat you like that. I don't care what you are, but he doesn't get to do that."

He says, "Thanks, mom," and it comes out meeker and quieter than he intended. 

*

They're divorced within the year.

Lonnie moves upstate and with him gone, Will feels like he can breathe.

*

There's something bitter on his tongue when Mike talks about _her._

He's too nice to let it show, but he can feel the jealousy boiling up in his gut.

He'd avoid Mike, truthfully, but with Nancy and Jonathan dating, it's hard. Mike always comes over with Nancy, and Jonathan always gives him this _look_ when he tries talking his way out of going to the Wheeler's.

And, yeah, maybe he feels stupid for focusing on his _crush_ and the fact that Mike is obviously head over dick for some _girl_ he hardly knows, despite the fact he himself has gone through more trauma in the past few years than some people go through in their entire lives, but he figures being irrationally angry over _Mike and Eleven_ beats having panic attacks.

*

Will wants to hate Eleven, because Mike looks at her like she hung the stars in the fucking sky, but he can't. Part of it's because she's hard to hate, and part of it's because they have some sort of unspoken upside down bond.

When his mom starts _seeing-but-not-really-seeing_ Hopper, she starts coming around more often. She's shy and polite and she _knows_ Will doesn't really care for her, but she's so — _graceful_ about it.

Will's sitting on the front porch, flicking a lighter he stole from his mom on and off, running his fingers over it, and she sits next to him, not saying anything in favor of staring at some of the trees that dot the property line. Eventually, she does speak to ask, "You don't like me, do you?"

She doesn't sound hurt. More than anything, she sounds curious.

"It's not that I don't like you," he explains. "I just don't like that _Mike_ likes you."

The cool thing about being raised in a lab, cut off from the outside world, is that she frankly doesn't give two shits about him being gay, or about him having a not very well hidden crush on Mike. "It's because you like him like he likes me, right?"

Will sucks snot up through his nose, because it's that time of the year, and nods. "Sorry."

She shrugs. "It's okay." She has a stick — not in her hand, but she's holding it with her mind powers like it was in her hand, drawing shapes in the dirt. "He's — frustrating, sometimes. Max calls him an asshole."

Will coughs on a laugh. "She's not wrong. He can be an asshole sometimes."

"Yeah." She has half a smile on her face when Will chances a glance at her.

*

Things get arguably _weird_ when Mike and Eleven break up in the middle of that summer. There's a lot of shit that happens in quick succession, their breakup being one of them, and after Starcourt, Will half expects them to get back together, but — they don't.

Max and Lucas break up, for good, too.

With Hopper and Billy just _gone_ — missing, presumed dead — Will spends a lot of nights hanging out with Eleven and Max. It takes a few months of hanging out for him to realize that they're _together_. He doesn't know what to think or do when he realizes it.

He doesn't make a big deal out of it, and when Max is handing him one of the cigarettes from the carton she'd swiped from Billy's room (after Starcourt, because she doesn't have a death wish) on a night where Eleven is at home with a cold, he asks about it. "So, you're, like, gay?"

"Are you, like, _gay?"_ She mocks him.

If she wasn't a girl, Will would sock her in the shoulder. He opts for shoulder checking her instead. "C'mon. You and El. I wanna know."

Max shrugs and doesn't look at him. "We're best friends."

"Kind of how me and Mike are best friends?"

"Yeah, except she likes me back. After — after all that shit this summer… I mean, it was bound to happen, I guess."

"Of course." Will chokes on smoke. "These are stale as fuck. Couldn't you have had someone buy you fresh ones?"

"Not when Billy has almost an entire fucking carton of them." 

Will rolls his eyes. "Still." He kicks a few pebbles on the ground, and jiggles his legs, trying to keep warm. "Marlboro is shit anyways."

*

Mike makes more of an effort to hang out once the school year starts. Will has to split his time between his adopted sister/Max, and him.

Things aren't the same as before. _Things_ are better than they were during the summer, but they're different than they were before the summer. There's some sort of tension that hangs in the air between them, and Mike finds a way to change the topic whenever Max or Eleven get brought up.

Will tests the waters here and there, tries talking about _boys_ when they're alone _,_ and Mike lets him. Mike is _kind,_ above all else, and even if he can be an asshole sometimes, he lets Will speak without judgment. 

*

It's when Mike asks, "How does the whole gay thing work?" that Will starts to get _hopeful._

He has to take a minute to think about it. To pick his words carefully. "I mean… it works about the same as it does for straight people. It's just — instead of falling in love with girls, I fall in love with guys, I guess. There's been a few times where I've thought I've had crushes on girls, but… I dunno. It's not the same as what I feel for boys. Girls don't make me nervous like guys do."

"Oh." They're sitting on the patio table on Steve's patio, while the rest of _The Party_ sits inside, playing a fairly heated game of Monopoly. "I'm not — I'm not trying to be weird, but… How would I know…? Y'know, if I were…?" He doesn't finish the question but Will gets his point.

"I mean, for me, I've always just… Kind of known. It helps that my mom and brother are cool about it, to be fair." Will taps his fingers on the table before continuing. "I daydream about guys a lot. I've never been able to realistically picture myself dating a girl."

"That's the thing. I can picture myself with girls, but… I dunno. It doesn't — it hasn't been feeling right lately. And — and there's this guy I've been wanting to ask out."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Also — with that thing I've been wonderin' about — it doesn't help matters that my ex girlfriend is dating a girl."

 _Oh._ "You know about El and Max?"

"Are you shitting me? After you, I'm the first person she told. She's still my best friend, y'know, after you." He makes a show out of rolling his eyes. "Even if she didn't tell me, I think I could figure it out. I mean…" He gestures towards the house, and Will turns around in time to see El kissing Max on the cheek. 

No one in the house bats an eyelash at them.

"She doesn't, like, quite understand the whole issue about queers, not like you or me would, because she didn't grow up around people. I wish I could… I dunno. Drop all the bullshit that's been crammed into my head, and just date who I want without having to worry or stress over it. Is that stupid?"

Will shakes his head. "No. I feel the same way. El is just _El,_ unapologetically, and I totally wish I could be myself like that. I mean, I'm working on it, but you _know._ "

"Totally, dude."

*

When Will considers which of his friends he'd expect to _acquire_ alcohol, Max comes to mind, which is why he's a little shocked when Dustin turns up to a sleepover at Mike's with a bottle of wine hidden away in his overnight bag.

There's enough wine in the bottle for the four of them — himself, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas — to each half one and a half of Karen's wine glasses worth, but not enough for any of them to get drunk.

Dustin ends up falling asleep, and Lucas ends up lying on the floor listening to a tape on Mike's Walkman anyways.

Will ends up lying in Mike's backyard, with Mike, watching the stars. More than anything, he just feels a little warm and a little sleepy, and he sort of has a craving for one of the stale cigarettes Max sometimes offers to him.

He starts feeling like he's about to cough roses, though, when Mike turns over to lay with his head on Will's shoulder.

Mike says, "I don't think wine is the drink for me. I feel like I'm gonna throw up."

Will asks, "Then why the hell are you laying on _me,_ you jerk?"

"Cause. You don't make me feel like I'm gonna throw up."

Will tests the waters. He wraps an arm around Mike's waist, and holds onto him. "I'm going to be _very_ displeased if you throw up on me."

"Would you be mad?"

Mike's hair sort of tickles Will's chin. "No, but I'd make you wash my shirt."

"I wouldn't just throw up on you and tell you to get fucked." His laugh sounds like heaven. "C'mon. I'm a gentleman."

"You're the man of my dreams — willing to clean my shirts if, and only if, he throws up on me."

"I mean, I'd probably clean your shirt anyways, vomit or not, if you asked nice enough. Sometimes it's hard to say no to you."

Will makes a 'pff' noise. "Right. Will Byers — _prince charming."_

"Prince Kinda Charming But Mostly Awkward," Mike jokes.

"Shut up, dick."

Mike props himself up, to stick his tongue out at Will.

Will can't help it when he grins at him.

And then — Mike kisses him. Not on the mouth or anything, but on the forehead. It's… sweet. It makes Will feel like he's just won the lottery. He's sure he looks like a deer in the headlights while he stares at Mike, waiting for him to say something.

"Was that okay?"

Will nods before he can think about it. "Yeah. That was pretty freaking okay."

Will only has a moment to worry that things are going to _get weird,_ before Mike makes a face, the one he makes when he's embarrassed, as he grabs a fist full of grass to drop onto Will's face.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways hopefully now that this is out of the way i can focus on my main wips
> 
> sorry 4 any formatting issues i do not currently have access to a computer ✌️🤪


End file.
